PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Sports Network honored Elon junior wide receiver Terrell Hudgins (Rocky Mount, N.C./Rocky Mount) on Friday afternoon as one of just 16 players chosen to the 2008 watch list for the Walter Payton Award, which will recognize the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision Offensive Player of the Year at the conclusion of the campaign.
The 6-3, 237-pound Hudgins is a 2008 First Team All-American for the preseason, according to The Sports Network, College Sporting News, Consensus Draft Services, The Sporting News and Phil Steele. He was named the 2007-08 Stein H. Basnight Outstanding Athlete in May, acknowledging him as the Phoenix male athlete of the year. Hudgins logged 10 Elon, Southern Conference or NCAA records while pacing the Phoenix to its best season in eight years last fall.
The 2007 Walter Payton Award finalist and team MVP led the FCS in receptions and receiving yards per game last season on his way to earning First Team All-Southern Conference and First Team All-America accolades. The Phoenix finished second in the nation in passing offense, ninth in scoring offense, 16th in passing efficiency and 19th in total offense.
The Walter Payton Award watch list will undergo two revisions, one in October and one in November, before ballots are sent out to a panel of sports information directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries on Nov. 24. The Sports Network awards banquet will be held Dec. 18 in Chattanooga, Tenn., on the evening before the NCAA Division I national championship game.
The Sports Network established the Walter Payton Award in 1987. Georgia Southern quarterback Jayson Foster was the 2007 recipient of the Walter Payton Award.
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